Chapter 19 Chapter 19 Visiting the Neighborhood

On December 2, the severe cold weakened.This eclipse is a sign that a meteorologist can never be mistaken for.They noticed that there is a certain percentage of water vapor in the atmosphere.Indeed, the air pressure dropped slightly, and at the same time the mercury on the thermometer rose to 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 9 degrees Celsius). Although the cold would have been too severe in any temperate zone, these winter dwellers found it easy to bear.Plus, the atmosphere is peaceful.Lieutenant Hobson observed that the upper layer of ice and snow had softened, and ordered the outer edge of the enclosure to be swept.Mike Knapp and his men worked valiantly and successfully completed the task in a few days.At the same time, the snow-buried trap was cleared out, and the flap valve was tightened again.There are many indications that fur game is plentiful near the headland, and there is little to eat in the snow, and they will be easily deceived by trap bait.

At the suggestion of the hunter Marbor, a deer trap was built in the Eskimo way.This is a deep pit about ten feet in diameter and about 12 feet deep.A wooden plank that can tilt up like a seesaw covers the deep pit, covering it tightly.Animals will be lured by blades of grass, leaves placed at one end of the plank, and inevitably fall into a deep pit, never to climb up again.It is known that with such flaps, the trap can automatically reset itself, and if a deer falls into it, others can fall in.Marbor had no other difficulty in constructing this deer trap than digging through the hard frozen ground; to his astonishment—as was Jasper Hobson—it took After feet of dirt and sand, he encountered a layer of frozen snow below, as hard as rock, that seemed very thick.

"It should be," said Lieutenant Hobson, after inspecting the geological formation, "that it should be that this coastal area experienced a severe cold many years ago, and it lasted for a long time; , and the soil gradually covered the frozen layer that looked like a granite bed." "Indeed, Lieutenant," replied the hunter, "but it will not do any harm to our traps. On the contrary, once a deer is trapped, it will touch the slippery inner wall and cannot climb up." Marbor was right, and what happened later confirmed his prediction. On December 5, Sabine and he went to inspect the traps, and they heard a dull roar coming from the pit.They stopped.

"It's not a deer call," said Marbor, "I can tell the name of the animal caught in the trap!" "A bear?" Sabine said. "Yes," said Marbor, with pleasure in his eyes. "Then," Sabine said again, "we won't suffer from this substitution. A roasted bear steak is no worse than a roasted deer steak, and it has a good leather. Let's do it!" Both hunters are armed.They put a bullet into the gun that had been filled with lead sand, and walked towards the trap.The flap-trap had been restored, but the bait was gone, perhaps carried down to the bottom of the pit.

Marbor and Sabine came to the entrance of the cave, removed the flap, and looked towards the bottom of the pit.The roar grew louder.Indeed, it was Bear Roar.In one corner of the trap crouched a monstrous creature, a mass of real white fur, which could not be seen clearly in the dark, except for two eyes gleaming in the middle of the white fur.There are deep paw prints on the wall of the pit. If the wall is made of dirt, the bear must have made a way to the outside.But on this slippery ice wall, its claws can't catch it. If its trap is bigger under its scratching, at least it can't escape.

In this case, there is no difficulty in catching a bear.Two shots aimed at the bottom of the pit killed the big beast, and the hardest part was pulling it up.The two hunters return to Castle Hope for reinforcements.More than a dozen partners followed them to the edge of the pit with ropes, and with great effort, they got the bear out of the pit.This bear is huge, 6 feet long, weighs at least 600 pounds, and probably has incredible strength.It should be of the subgenus Polarus, with a flat head, long body, short and flat nails, a pointed beak, and white fur all over its body.As for the bear meat, it was all sent to Madame Jolliffe, and it became a delicacy for dinner that day.

During the following week, the trapping went well.About 20 minks were caught with their beautiful winter fur, but there were only two or three foxes.These shrewd animals see through the traps set for them, often digging in the soil next to the traps, successfully bite the bait, and escape the flap trap.This made Sabine furious, such a clever trick was no match for an honest fox. On December 4, the wind turned to the southwest, and it snowed again, but not as heavy as a feather.It was a fine snow, not too heavy, but it froze at once, for the cold was severe and the wind was blowing so hard it was unbearable.Therefore, I had to go back to the room again and redo the indoor work.Out of prudence, Jasper Hobson distributed to everyone some lime bars and lemon juice, which were needed to prevent scurvy during prolonged periods of cold and humidity.Furthermore, no symptoms of scurvy have been found among the residents of Fort Hope.Thanks to these precautionary measures, no one's health was compromised.

The polar night is deep.The winter solstice is fast approaching, and in the northern hemisphere, that's when the sun dips to its lowest point below the horizon.In the midnight twilight the southern edge of the vast white plain was slightly lit.The entire arctic region is wrapped in darkness, filled with desolation. A few more days passed in the public house.Jasper Hobson felt more secure against the attack of the beast since the clearing was made at the edge of the wall,--fortunately, for people heard the horrible roar constantly, and knew the beast at once.As for visits from Indians or Canadians, there is nothing to fear at this time of year.

However, an unexpected incident happened, which could be called an episode in the long wintering period, and it also proved that even in the middle of winter, this deserted place is not completely deserted.Humans still run along the coast, hunt walruses, and camp in the snow.They belonged to the race of the "Great Sea", scattered over the North American continent, from the Buffin Sea to the Bering Strait, until the south of Lake Eskraf as the boundary. On the morning of December 14th, at nine o'clock in the morning, Sergeant Long returned from his inspection on the coast and reported to the lieutenant that, if I read correctly, a nomad tribe was camped four miles from the fort, near the fort. With a small headland.

"What are these nomads?" asked Jasper Hobson. "A man or a walrus," replied Sergeant Long, "nothing in between!" The honest sergeant would be amazed to be told that some naturalists fully accept this "in between" thing, he just doesn't know it.Indeed, some scholars more or less jokingly regard Eskimos as "an intermediate species between humans and walruses". Lieutenant Hobson, Mrs Pauline Barnett, March, and several others were at once tempted to observe the visitors.Dressed in clothes and hoods, ready to guard against the sudden cold, armed with guns, axes, and cotton leather boots, they went out through the side door and walked along the coastline, where the river was covered with large blocks of ice.

The crescent moon shone through the mist, shining hazy night light on the ice.After walking for about an hour, the lieutenant thought that the sergeant might have made a mistake, that perhaps he had seen only walruses, and that the walruses had probably returned to their habitat from their burrows in the ice. But Sergeant Lang pointed to a hut-like cone on the ice, and said calmly: "Then it's walrus smoke!" At this time, several living people walked out of the hut and walked slowly on the snow.They were Eskimos, but male and female, as only Eskimos could tell, and their strange costumes confused them. In fact, without having to agree with the above-mentioned naturalists, one will say that these are seals, true amphibians, all furry.There are six of them, four adults and two children. They are not tall, but have broad shoulders, flat noses, big mouths, thick lips, black, long and hard hair, and no beards.He wore a tunic of walrus skin, a hood, leather boots, and fingerless leather gloves.These semi-savages approached the Europeans and watched them silently. "Don't any of you understand Eskimo?" Jasper Hobson asked his companions. No one understood the dialect; but soon came the welcome in English: It was an Eskimo, or rather,--it soon became known--an Eskimo woman, who approached Mrs Paulina Barnet, and held out her hand in greeting. The female traveler was stunned, and answered a few words, and the native woman seemed to understand immediately, so the European invited their whole family to follow to the fort. The Eskimos seemed to consult with their eyes, and after hesitating for a while, they huddled together and walked away with Lieutenant Hobson. When they came to the wall, the native woman saw the house and cried out: "" She asked if it was a snow house, and she thought it was, because the whole house was now lost in the silvery white that covered the ground.People told her it was a log house.Then the Eskimo woman said a few words to her companions, who all nodded.All the people went in through the side door, and after a while, they came to the main hall. In the room, with the hood off, men and women can be distinguished.There were two men in their forties and fifties, with rosy complexions, pointed teeth, and prominent cheekbones, who looked vaguely like carnivores; two women were still very young, with polar bear teeth and paws; and finally two children of five or six, poor little ones looking lively, looking around with wide open eyes. "It seems pretty safe to assume that Eskimos are always hungry," says Jasper Hobson. "I don't think a piece of game meat will displease our guests." According to Lieutenant Hobson's instructions, Sergeant Jolliffe brought some pieces of venison, and these poor people immediately jumped on it and devoured it greedily.Only the young Eskimo woman, who spoke English, restrained herself from looking intently at Mrs Pauline Barnett and the other women in the station.Later, seeing the baby in Mrs. Mac Knapp's arms, she got up and went over, teasing him gently, and stroking him with great affection. This young native woman seemed more cultivated, if not refined, than the others, and it was especially evident that when she coughed softly, she always covered her mouth with her hands, in accordance with the minimum moral rules of civilized people. This action did not miss anyone's attention.Mrs. Polina Barnett chose the most common English to talk with this Eskimo woman. She learned that this young native woman had served for a year in the home of the Danish Governor in Upanavik. The Governor's wife was British.Later, she left Greenland to hunt for a living with her family.The two men were her brothers; the other woman married one of the brothers and was the mother of two children, her sister-in-law.They all came back from Melbuna Island on the east coast of British America, and they were going to the Baru Pass in the West Georgia Cape of Russian America where their tribe lived. stood, they were amazed.The two Eskimo men looked at the building and even shook their heads.They disapprove of building a fort on this part of the coast?Did they feel the location was poorly chosen?Despite Lieutenant Hobson's patient inquiries, he couldn't get them to explain the question, or, at least, he didn't understand their answers. As for the young Eskimo woman, her name was Karuma, she seemed friendly with Lady Paulina Barnett.However, the poor girl, despite her know-how, had no regrets about her former position in the Upanavik Governor's family, for which she was very attached. The Eskimos drank half a pint of schnapps after the meat, and the children drank it, and then they took leave of their masters, and before leaving, the young native woman invited the traveler to visit their snow house.Lady Polina Barnet promised to go the next day, provided the weather held. Indeed, the next day Mrs. Polina Barnett was accompanied by March, Lieutenant Hobson, and a few armed soldiers—with guns not against Eskimos, but against bears that might appear on the coast. ,—going to Cape Eskimo—this is the name they gave to the native camp. Karuma ran out to meet her friend from yesterday, and showed her the igloo with satisfaction.It was a large cone of ice and snow, with a small hole cut in the top, used as an outlet for the smoke in the house, and the temporary shelter of the Eskimos was dug here.They built this kind of "snow house" very quickly, which is called "one attic" in dialect.They are perfectly suited to the climate, and their inhabitants can endure minus forty degrees without fire without suffering.In summer, Eskimos live in buckskin or sealskin tents, and the name of the tent is "Tupik". It's not easy to get into this igloo.It had only one low-level entrance, and had to be drilled in through a passage four or five feet long, because the snow was at least that thick.But a professional woman traveler, a winner of the Royal Society, does not hesitate, and Paulina Barnett did not.Lady Polina Barnett bravely followed the Native girl into the narrow passage, and Madge followed.As for Lieutenant Hobson and his men, they gave up the visit. Lady Polina Barnett understood at once that the hardest part was not getting into the snow but staying in it.Burning walrus bones on the stove to keep warm, the smell of lamp oil, greasy clothes, and walrus meat, which is the staple food of the Eskimos, filled the air with disgusting smells.March couldn't stand it, and went out almost immediately, and Mrs Paulina Barnett, with superhuman courage in order not to upset the native girl, stayed in there for five minutes--five centuries!The two children stayed inside with their mother, and as for the two men, the walrus hunt took them four or five feet from where they lived. Once out of the snow, Mrs Polina Barnett breathed in the cool air drunkenly, which brought some color back to her already pale face. "So, ma'am?" the lieutenant asked her. "What do you think of an Eskimo house?" "The ventilation needs to be improved!" replied Mrs. Paulina Barnet simply. This interesting Aboriginal family camped here for a week, during which two Eskimo men spent twelve of the twenty-four hours hunting walruses.With great patience, they went to the edge of the cave to watch the walruses stretching their heads to breathe from the ice field.As soon as the walrus emerged, a noose tied with a slipknot was caught in its breast, and the two natives pulled it out with all their might, and hacked it to death with their axes.Indeed, this is more like fishing than hunting.They then drank the warm blood of these amphibians, which Eskimos are obsessed with eating. Despite the cold, Karuma goes to Fort Hope every day.She wandered about the rooms with the greatest pleasure, watching others sewing, and noticing all the details of Madame Jolliff's cooking.She asked for the English name of everything, and chatted for hours with Mrs. Pauline Barnett,--if this long exchange of words in search of words counted as "chat."When the traveler read aloud, Karuma listened attentively, even though she could not understand anything. Karuma sang, too, with a soft voice, and sang songs of a peculiar rhythm, sad, cold, melancholy, with strange pauses.Lady Polina Barnett patiently translated one of the Greenlandic poems, a curious specimen of arctic poetry, melancholy, staccato, oddly spaced, with an indeterminate tinge.Here is the poem copied from the traveler's notebook: song of greenland the sky is dark, The sun drags its feet, Move slowly! disappointment my poor and hesitant heart Full of disappointment! Blonde girls laugh at my tender singing! Winter sprinkled frost into her heart! dream angel, Your love makes all things grow, intoxicates me, I am brave Looking up to you, following you, Not afraid of ice and snow. well!my kiss, the warmth of a kiss, Failed to remove the frost in your heart! what!wish tomorrow, my soul and your soul, depend on each other, wish my hand, hold affectionately your hands! The sun will shine in our sky, The frost in your heart will be melted by love! On December 20, the Eskimo family came to Fort Hope to say goodbye.Karuma is attached to the traveler, and she wants to keep the girl with her; but the native girl doesn't want to leave her family.In addition, she promised to come back to Fort Hope next summer. The farewell scene is touching.She gave Lady Paulina Barnet a small brass ring, and received a jet necklace, which she put on at once.Jasper Hobson made sure to load the poor souls with plenty of provisions on their sledges before allowing them to go, and after Karuma thanked them, the amusing family headed west, disappearing into the thick fog by the sea. middle.

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